Faithful Citizenship from Mary B

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Faithful Citizenship from Mary B

May 1, 2011

In a full-page ad in the New York Times in January, 1994, the Coalition for the Homeless ran a drawing of Jesus with a large caption below: How can you worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?

I am so proud to say that that is not the situation here at ROL with our parish family. Please know that the increased food donations for our “Here the Hungry Find Plenty” effort are greatly appreciated. The containers virtually overflow after each Mass on weekends. The response is better than hoped for. We are happy to see that shopping for the less fortunate is becoming part of your weekly trip to the market.

Of course, there will always be more that can be done either through the Social Ministry programs we currently have in place or through ways we have still to learn. This week the governor announced a grassroots effort to identify, locate and help our homeless brothers and sisters. This is often as simple as keeping our eyes open for people in our neighborhood who need help.

From our Catechism of the Catholic Church, (Col 3:14), “The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which ‘binds everything together in perfect harmony.’ Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love.” As Jesus said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

Gotta go boot up my hard drive! Aloha--- Mary B

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Catholic Church Fan Page

The Catholic Church traces its foundation to Jesus and the twelve Apostles. It sees the bishops of the Church as the successors of the apostles and the pope (the bishop of Rome), in particular, as the successor of Peter, the leader of the apostles.

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world's population. The Catholic Church is a communion of the Western Rite (Latin Rite) and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches (called particular churches), comprising 2,795 dioceses in 2008.

The Church's highest earthly authority in matters of faith, morality and Church governance is the Pope,currently Pope Benedict XVI, who holds supreme authority in the Church in concert with the College of Bishops, of which he is the head. The Catholic community is made up of an ordained ministry and the laity; members of either group may belong to organized religious communities.

The Church defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity. It operates social programs and institutions throughout the world, including schools, universities, hospitals, missions and shelters, as well as organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, Caritas Internationalis and Catholic Charities that help the poor, families, the elderly and the sick.

Through apostolic succession, the Church believes itself to be the continuation of the Christian community founded by Jesus in his consecration of Saint Peter, a view shared by some historians. It has defined its doctrines through various ecumenical councils, following the example set by the first Apostles in the Council of Jerusalem. On the basis of promises made by Jesus to his apostles, described in the Gospels, the Church believes that it is guided by the Holy Spirit and so protected from falling into doctrinal error.

Catholic beliefs are based on the Bible and on Traditions handed down from the time of the Apostles, which are interpreted by a teaching authority. Those beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed and formally detailed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.Formal Catholic worship, termed the liturgy, is regulated by Church authority. The Eucharist, one of seven Church sacraments and the key part of every Catholic Mass or Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy, is the center of Catholic worship.

With a history spanning almost two thousand years, the Church is one of the world's oldest institutions and has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilization since at least the 4th century. In the 11th century, a major split (the Great Schism) occurred between Eastern and Western Christianity, largely as a result of disagreements over papal primacy. The Eastern Orthodox churches became a separate entity from the Catholic Church in the resulting schism. Eastern Churches who remained in or later re-established communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, form the Eastern Catholic churches. In the 16th century, partly in response to the Protestant schism, the Church engaged in a substantial process of reform and renewal, known as the Counter-Reformation.

Although the Church maintains that it is the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church" founded by Jesus Christ where one can find the fullness of the means of salvation, it also acknowledges that the Holy Spirit can make use of other Christian communities to bring people to salvation. It believes that it is called by the Holy Spirit to work for unity among all Christians, a movement known as ecumenism.Modern challenges facing the Church include the rise of secularism and opposition to its stances on abortion, euthanasia, and contraception.

Welcome to Resurrection of the Lord - E Komo Mai

Thursday, April 28, 2011